A judgment by the Quebec Superior Court will allow at home daycare workers to join a union. The decision is currently available, in French, by clicking on Confédération des syndicats nationaux c. Québec (Procureur général), at the Quebec Superior Courts judgments website (see below).

A recent paper by David Doorey of York University looks at union access to workers during organizing campaigns in light of the recent Supreme Court of Canada Health Services decision. The paper titled, Union Access to Workers During Union Organizing Campaigns: A New Look Through the Lens of Health Services, compares Canadian, American, and British law on this topic.

The Workplace Information Directorate Labour Program, part of Human Resources and Social Development Canada, produces a quarterly analysis of innovative provisions in collective agreements negotiated between employers and unions. An innovative provision could include trend-setting changes to workplace practices such as how to manage work-life balance in the workplace.

According to a recent article in the Globe and Mail the current economic crunch will be hardest for Gen Y. The article includes a section for managers on how to best manage Gen Y through the economic downturn.

Globe and Mail, October 29, 2008: “Generation shocked; having known only boom times, Gen Y faces the toughest adjustment in career expectations during the current crunch, pros say” by Wallace Immen

The Conference Board of Canada has released, Canada’s Pathways Toward Global Innovation Success: Report of the Leaders’ Panel on Innovation-Based Commerce. The report argues that to prosper Canada should harness its technological and commercial resources along three key pathways: clean energy, water management, and regenerative medicine.

The Conference Board of Canada has prepared a website titled —How Canada Performs: A Report Card on Canada—that assesses Canada’s quality of life compared to that of its peer countries. The economy, health, society, innovation, education and skills, and the environment are graded.

Mercer has launched a new web site titled, “Unprecedented times”. The site will provide resources in response to the current environment of economic uncertainty. The current page, “Leading through unprecedented times,” provides links to podcasts with Mercer experts on HR-related matters, including talent management, transformational change, executive remuneration and employer provide health benefits.

The most recent release by TD Bank Financial Group states that, “Relative to our September 25th forecast, we now expect Canada will be in a recession by the end of this year.” A Tale of Two Views, October 31, 2008.

The Canadian Association of Pension Supervisory Authorities has released its Final Report on Regulatory Principles for a Model Pension Law in Canada, intended to promote the harmonization of pension legislation across Canada. As well, an earlier CAPSA consultation paper titled, Proposed Agreement Respecting Multi-Jurisdictional Pension Plans, is also available. CAPSA will be holding in-person consultation sessions in cities across Canada.

The objective of Nova Scotia’s Pension Review Panel is to ensure that defined benefit and defined contribution pension plans work well for both employers and employees. The issues being considered by the Panel include: the rules governing the payment of unfunded liabilities and solvency deficiencies; how to take away or decrease the volatility of pension plan costs for employers and employees; surplus and terminal funding issues; and encouraging employer participation in pension plans.

Statistics Canada has released a paper titled, Postsecondary Education – Participation and Dropping Out: Differences across University, College and Other Types of Postsecondary Institutions. The paper profiles postsecondary education dropouts from three different types of postsecondary education – university, college and other types of institutions and compares them with graduates. Dropping out of postsecondary education is costly as individuals incur costs via lost tuition and forgo future earnings and government contributions are a loss of investment.

The European Foundation for the Improvement of Working and Living Conditions has released a paper titled, Flexicurity and Industrial Relations. The report reviews the relevance and implementation of flexicurity in European Union Member States. The paper looks at whether the introduction of the concept of flexicurity at national levels has had any impact on the attitudes of the social partners as regards labour regulation and industrial relations.

OECD has launched a new interactive tool, the OECD eXplorer, used for visualising and analysing regional statistics using maps and graphs. Using a subset of OECD Regional Statistics database, users can now see and understand a selection of social and economic data at regional levels within OECD countries. They may use the mapping function to pan across and zoom into the map data and select regions that can then be viewed and compared in multiple graph formats simultaneously.

Performance Evaluation is a hands-on text for practitioners, researchers, educators, and students in how to use scientifically-based evaluations that are both rigorous and flexible. The author introduces the foundations of evaluation and presents the most applicable models for the performance improvement field. Her book offers a wide variety of tools and techniques that have proven successful and is organized to illustrate evaluation in the context of continual performance improvement.

About the Author: Ingrid Guerra-López is an associate professor at Wayne State University and an internationally-known evaluation expert.